I couldn’t focus on the other fights. While Mia and Alain were being tended to in the waiting room, that just left Javier and I to have to fight at some point, and the thought that I would potentially fight Javier was enough to erode any confidence I had.

The alternative was that I had to fight a stranger, and that came with its own swath of problems. Like how the last person I fought… I killed them. I gave them another option and they rushed to their death. Lethal tactics were fine when fighting spike feeders, but what was I supposed to do non-lethally? Just Electromute them until they didn’t feel like fighting anymore? It wasn’t like killing would be looked upon favorably, and I didn’t think any of us had technically won a fight yet either. It was a lot to be preoccupied with.

“Perry? You’re up,” the worker said, dragging me alongside the man who had pointed out the window earlier that afternoon.

He snorted, looking up me up and down with a bemused look. “This is what they gave me to fight? No one is going to be entertained by this. No offense, kid.”

“The name is Perry,” I said, not deigning to respond this accusations of interest. He wasn’t necessarily wrong in that regard. It wouldn’t be interesting to watch me struggle to find a way to non-lethally harm my opponent.

The man didn’t give me his name back, animatedly whispering with the arena worker in hushed tones as we continued through the tunnels out into the heart of the arena. None of the man’s words got through, the worker’s face hard as a stone. He strode back off into the tunnel, leaving the two of us standing a fair space apart in the heart of the arena, waiting for the announcer to do his job.

My opponent bore a scowl on his face, but it was a scowl filled with resolve. He was ready to fight even if I didn’t measure up to his unknown standards. “We have Perry the platypus beast soul versus house favorite, Norville the tiger beast soul. Place your bets and then we’ll see the match in thirty seconds. Don’t wait too long or you’ll miss your chance!”

Norville beamed at his praise, flexing for the crowd, showing off his powerful upper body. He was treating our fight like it was a show, more fixated on the adoration of the crowd then our impending violence, although I suppose it made sense, given he didn’t seemingly think I was a threat.

“Let the fight begin!” the announcer shouted, the crowd cheering to new heights. I circled Norville slowly, summoning my fur to me, while he just stood there with a smug look on his face.

“Look kid—”

“Perry,” I interjected.

“Look, Perry, you see this?” He kissed one of his swollen biceps. “This is a lethal weapon. If I summon any of my second tier attributes, you would get overwhelmed. My body is an act of destruction just in its existence. It will be more than enough for your under-active form.”

Norville started slowly circling around the arena, arms raised in response to the crowd’s cheering. “I’ve done the math. Normally if one of the other fighters tussle with me, they lose, three out of ten times. However, I’m a muscular monster, and I’m not normal. So they’ve got a twenty percent chance of beating me at max, and then you add in your scrawny body to the mix. Nine out of ten times, I would win in an arm wrestling contest, and that doesn’t even account for my beast soul. So you take that nine out of ten times, and add in the three out of ten times someone else would lose, and you’ll get twelve out of ten times that you’re doomed to lose. The numbers don’t lie. They add up and calculate your defeat in the arena.”

“You… I… what?” I sputtered, unable to follow the convoluted logic Norville had spat out. “Fine. Fight me without your beast soul and see how far you get.”

He nodded, and sprinted over, arm hanging out with his bicep flexed to try and catch me in the face. I didn’t need to rise to his challenge, easily dodging his telegraphed attack by ducking my head.

“Perry, my small friend, we’re here to give the crowd a show, not see a coward avoid being beaten. Take the hit.”

I

blinked rapidly, taken aback. “Excuse me? Why would I want to take the hit? Aren’t you supposed to be a muscular monster? Wouldn’t that hurt?”

Norville rolled his eyes, jumping at me with both of his legs extended aimed right at my torso. I side-stepped the attack, Norville landing face-first on the ground to the roar of the crowd. I raised my arms, trying to encourage their feedback and taunts for Norville. Perhaps he would knock himself out if he continued to try and assault me without putting in any real effort.

My enemy rose to his feet once more, swiping at me with reckless abandon, my body swaying past the trajectory of his assault. His lips curled into a snarl, a heavy grunt peeking through his teeth as he jumped at me once again, trying to hold my body tightly in this thick arms. I couldn’t let him freely grapple me, rolling underneath his assault. He continued on behind me, grasping nothing but empty air, slamming his feet on the ground as he bellowed out a mighty scream.

“Fine, you want me to treat you like a threat, Perry? I’ll treat you with the respect you certainly don’t deserve.” His arms grew covered in orange fur with black stripes. He pushed off of the ground, face affixed into a scowl, sharp canines, peeking out from his mouth. He slowly walked over and slammed his arm at me.

My electroreception indicated this one I wouldn’t have the time to dodge, given the additional effort put into the attack. I summoned my Swollen Fur to eat the impact, his claw slamming into the amassed hair around my midsection. It pushed me back, skidding against the ground, but I was none the worse for the wear.

“You little shit. Are you going to attack me or are you going to just stand there being a bitch who can’t even harm me. Because if you can only eat attacks, you’ll be meeting the ground soon enough,” Norville said, any pretense gone from his kinder overtures earlier in the day.

His lips contorted into a tiger’s maw, scowl replaced with a carnivore’s fanged predator’s smile. A mighty roar escaped from his lips, my body locking in place, not listening to my will. “You feel that? That’s your prey instinct telling you stay in place. A predator stands at the top, kiddo. Don’t feel too bad. Even the others in the room have fallen to my roar.” It was true. The crowd was quieter.

Norville slowly walked towards me, not a care in the world, certain that he would be able to maul me with one simple swipe of his paws. My mind screamed at my body to move again, desperate to avoid the impending attack, but I could only feel me fingers twitching. That wasn’t enough. Not fast enough.

I struggled desperately with each step of Norville’s, frantically hoping my body would listen to me. ‘This must be what it feels like to be Electromuted,’ I thought. The idea circulated to the forefront of my mind, and I desperately reached out, sending an Electromute into the tiger man’s body.

I could see from his bulging eyes that it had taken effect just long enough for my body to listen to me, his paw lazily swiping through where I was no longer present. “Why you… do you even know how to attack? You little fucker. Stop stalling. I’m tiring of your games. The crowd wants a show and you’ll deny them it no longer.”

His eyes started to glow red, black stripes appearing on his face. I sensed his body preparing to lunge. He snarled, jumping off of the floor, his mighty swipe gouging out the floor where my body was moments ago. If he was holding back, that was no longer the case.

His movements were measured but just as equally unrestrained, his hips swaying as he pivoted towards me for another full-frontal assault. There was no restraint in his attacks. Whatever had existed of his bravado, his intent— that was all gone. There was no more of his personality in his movements either. He just existed to attack, body telegraphing his moves with obvious intent, so much so that my electroreception was unnecessary compared to my meager combat experience and yet that knowledge didn’t make it easier to mitigate his reckless assault. Norville had transitioned into a force of nature, and that was as much an act of faith to survive as it was a concerted effort.

This feral nature he had called upon would only make the fight harder to win. I had even less time to think, his energy seemingly endless in his relentless assault. I couldn’t say the same thing for myself. While we had trained relentlessly, bodies breaking under the morning sun, the constant exertion to avoid or mitigate the damage of his reckless abandon meant that it was becoming more and more likely that I would slip up and eat the full brunt of his blows.

The worst part about the whole fight wasn’t the impending doom, but rather that his mind was absent for him to have any meaningful success fighting me. His conscious mind had failed to pierce my defense, but when it ran purely on instinct he could overwhelm me. It was a pain worse than any that he could inflict to think my training would be overcome with brute force and an unending stamina. I couldn’t let him win. I couldn’t let him overcome me with such mindless animosity.

I turned up my electroreception once again, trying to get a good reading on his next assault. I sidestepped a casual swipe, before inflating my Swollen Fur to eat the next blow, Electromuting Norville to try and build more buffer room in planning how I would overcome him without trying to kill him. Perhaps if I could understand his intent further… maybe I could borrow his instinct’s patterns to let me preemptively dodge them. I reached out to his body’s impulses and tried to pull them to mine, letting our two body’s tensions meet and saw to my surprise, the line of electricity running through Norville’s shaking form.

Technique Codified: Direct Current. Proficiency: 10%

This wasn’t what I had intended to do, but that didn’t mean I was going to ignore the gift given to me. Norville had endured my first Direct Current, but his body looked in a far worse state than it had moments before. If this was a non-lethal assault, then I could embrace it as my means to turn this fight around.

The crowd had gasped in shock at the appearance of my technique— I would have been with them if not for the need to focus on the fight on front of me. Just because I had created an opportunity for victory didn’t mean I could relax. One direct hit from Norville and I was certain I would collapse, body falling apart from the impact. I certainly wouldn’t be dead, but the difference between not-dead and mostly immobile wasn’t large enough when one compared what I would be able to do immediately following our bout.

Norville roared, my body refusing to break under his will this time. He swiped at me with both of his paws and I ducked underneath, my palm connecting to his chest. I smelt his burnt flesh, my technique having little room to travel from the tip of my fingers to his broad pectorals. He staggered backwards, head shaking, red light starting to fade from his eyes. What consciousness had flitted away in his feral haze was starting to return, confusion abundant in his gaze.

I would have guessed that he normally saw others collapsed on the ground when coming out of this raging state, not his opponent still standing and his body more damaged than he had started with. But I wasn’t going to ignore the opportunity his nascent consciousness provided. I fired off another Direct Current, his body convulsing from the volts surging through his form. Norville fell over backwards, eyes rolling up to his head, the whites blankly staring at the top of the cage.

“We have an upset! Perry has nearly flawlessly defeated Norville in the ring,” the announcer shouted. “He endured Norville’s undisputed winning streak, negated his feral rage and put down our nominal champion with what looked to be a lightning strike! Give it up for our winner!” The crowd roared, their voices a cacophony of jeers and cheers, words indistinguishable in the chaos of their screams.

I turned my electroreception back on to scan Norville, sighing in relief when I confirmed sensing signs of life. It would have been awful to have avoided trying to kill him only to do so with my untested technique, one that was supposed to only help me dodge further at its intended inception, but I had won the fight. It was indisputable. If I practiced further, this new technique could become a heavy hitter, turning me into a powerhouse for our team.

I stared silently at the tiger man, standing over his unconscious body, lost in thought just long enough for the worker to drag me over to the tunnel, Norville’s body hoisted over his shoulders. The bulky man had still failed to gain consciousness, my attack not so easy to overcome. But if this was what it meant to be successful, then perhaps I could come to terms with my actions. With my new technique, I was coming up to a wide range of options when fighting. Maybe I could even approach Javier’s prowess sooner than I would have thought possible.